Continuity mistake: When Giles and Jenny are talking in the library, when Jenny closes the bible, the way she's holding it changes instantly between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Buffy is consoling Willow after she discovered the dead students, as Buffy leaves the room, Willow's mouth is open and she looks down. It then cuts to a wideshot. Instantly, Willow's mouth is closed and she's staring forward, and she looks down a second time.
Continuity mistake: When Jenny meets Giles after Xander's botched attempt at asking out Buffy, the way she's holding the folders to her chest subtly changes repeatedly between the closeup and wide shots.
Continuity mistake: When Buffy turns down Xander's date proposal at the start of the episode, throughout the scene, Xander has his backpack up around his right shoulder. However, when he walks away, it's instantly down by his side.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, when Xander is practicing asking Buffy out with Willow, at once point Willow puts one of her snacks (candies, I think) into her mouth and starts chewing in a medium/wide profile shot of the two. It then cuts to a closeup of her and instantly she's no longer chewing, and immediately places a second candy in her mouth. She didn't have time to stop chewing and swallow between cuts.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When Cordy notices the word "Learn" in The Bronze and asks "What does that mean?" the positions of the ropes around her arms changes instantly between cuts.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When Buffy finds the invisible girl's "home" in the ceiling and picks up her flute, the position of everything on her bed changes between the initial closeup we saw and the shot of Buffy picking up the flute. Ex. In the initial closeup, the flute is on an open case, while in the shot where Buffy picks it up the case is closed. All the sheet music is in a slightly different position. A cylindrical object appears next to the flute that wasn't there in the initial closeup, etc.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When Xander makes the joke "Maybe it was a vampire bat!" in the cafeteria near the beginning of the episode, a sandwich suddenly appears in his previously-empty hand between edits.
Nightmares - S1-E10
Continuity mistake: When Willow goes down the stairs to the basement, as she reaches the bottom, she goes from looking forward to looking to her right between cuts.
Nightmares - S1-E10
Continuity mistake: When the Scoobies go to talk to Wendall about the spiders, when Wendall says "I don't know what to say about that " he instantly goes from looking forward to looking down between edits.
Nightmares - S1-E10
Continuity mistake: When Buffy's mom first wakes her up after her nightmare at the beginning of the episode, the positions of Buffy's hands, her mother's hand and the bed comforter all change between edits as it cuts from a closeup to a wide shot.
Nightmares - S1-E10
Continuity mistake: When Buffy goes to find Giles, who is going through newspapers, she asks him if he's found anything and he says "I don't know." Between shots Buffy goes from looking at him to glancing downwards with her eyes and then looking back up again between cuts.
Continuity mistake: When the earthquake happens at the start of the episode, and we see the Master celebrating, his hands instantly change positions at least twice between cuts. (Sometimes it matches perfectly between cuts other times they're in an entirely different position between cuts).
Continuity mistake: When Buffy stakes the first vampire at the beginning, in the first shot, his hands are in towards his abdomen. When the camera cuts behind him, and he falls back, suddenly they're instantly extended partially outwards to either side.
Continuity mistake: When Cordy stops kissing her boyfriend and says "What was that?" at the beginning of the episode, the lighting on Cordy's face changes completely as it cuts between the two camera angles. In the first angle, the lighting is much darker and shadowy, while in the second angle, her face is suddenly much brighter.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: After Buffy cuts herself out of her chair, she unties Cordy's left wrist. The scene cuts away to Giles, Xander, Willow and Angel. When the scene cuts back to Buffy and Cordy, suddenly Cordy's wrist is tied again. There's no indication that it was retied in the meantime.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When Cordy and Buffy are tied up, at one point Marcie the invisible girl punches Buffy. As it cuts from a closeup of Buffy back to a wideshot, the position of Buffy's head and the expression of her face instantly changes between cuts. She goes from having her head crooked with a pained expression and her eyes half-shut to having her head straight with a shocked expression and her eyes wide open.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When the invisible girl pushes Buffy, and she falls through the ceiling and onto a table, the position of Buffy's arms changes slightly between edits when it cuts to a high-angle shot of her knocked out. Some of the debris around her also changes position.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: This is subtle and hard to notice. When Buffy is explaining that something bumped into her in front of the school after Giles explains what it's like to be touched by a ghosts, pay attention to Xander. In the first shot, he's standing about two feet back from Buffy and his left shoulder is behind Willow. In the next shot he's suddenly much closer to Buffy and Willow is no longer in front of his left shoulder.
Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: When Harmony is pushed down the stairs, she suddenly goes from in front of to behind the garbage can at the bottom instantly between cuts.
Chosen answer: From what we see in the series, certain girls are identifiable as potential Slayers - Kendra clearly fell into this category. The identification method is presumably mystical in nature, but the Watchers' Council are pretty effective at that sort of thing, so they're quite good at tracking down the potentials ahead of time. Not perfect, though - it does appear that Buffy herself may have slipped through the net - certainly she had no inkling of what she was until she'd already taken on the role of Slayer. It is possible, however, that this was actually cultural - an American family would hardly be likely to turn over their daughter to some strange man for 'training', so the Watchers might have chosen to keep an eye on her covertly, whereas some other cultures (like Kendra's Jamaican parents) might be more willing to believe.
Tailkinker ★